Ta-Da!!!

Yep, I pounded out “THE END” to Stealing Amy last night. After 391 blood, sweat, and tear-soaked pages, I finally “finished.”

Now, before anyone gets too excited, let me clue you in: there’s still a L-O-N-G way to go. I tied off knots at the end which have no strings leading to them…I paid off on hints that don’t exist in the beginning (and vice versa)…I left highlighted passages that say “insert Spanish here”…I threw in mundane words that need powerful replacements…and that’s before I even figure out whether the story is entertaining, engrossing, or even half-way readable. Can you say, “ACK?”

Nonetheless, I’m pleased as hell to have made it through the rough draft of my second marketable book. What do I mean by that?

Now, tell me. Would you count the 200-page (single-space typed!) rip-off of Nancy Drew I wrote when I was nine? How about the incredibly naïve and immature effort just after graduate school when I suddenly had too much time on my hands?

True, I did get a request from Silhouette ten years ago on my third manuscript (which was promptly rejected) but I hardly count that either because…well, it’s not like I’m Amazon and the publisher will wanna add it to the cart.

Then there’s the manuscript that lured me back into this whole writing mess. My NaNoWriMo project of 2002. For those of you not familiar, NaNo is an on-line writing challenge wherein you write your little heart out (with the internal editor clicked to OFF) for an entire month. I wrote a 200-page book that month then realized it was too short, so I spent the next six months writing 200 pages to tack on at the beginning. Technically, Sierra’s Last Song is a completed book, but I never went back to “marry” the first 200 with the second 200, so it would need a lot of work. Still…sometimes when an editor is interested in buying your book, she asks what else you’ve got on the menu. If pressed, I could probably whip Sierra into shape to round out the meal. (Hmm…did I just contradict the previous paragraph?)

But, hey…I’m jumping the gun anyway.

So, what’s next for Stealing Amy? Strangely enough, it gets shelved for a couple weeks. That’s right. Time to put some space between me and my offspring so I can approach the editing process with a fresh eye. (This is where you cross your fingers and pray that it’s not just a total piece of crap.)

That doesn’t mean I won’t start working on the “biz” end of things. Already, last night I polished off the query letter. Armed with what I learned from pitching Fit For Love, I’m well aware of the eons it takes to hear back from editors and agents, so I’m comfortable with getting the ball rolling even though the manuscript isn’t in tip-top shape. The good news is, I wrote a version of the query letter before I started the book. (Lesson learned from Fit For Love: if, when you finish writing the manuscript, crafting the query letter feels like walking over hot coals, something is wrong with the book.) So, like I say, the query letter was a breeze.

More importantly, I can start writing something new!! (Applause, applause.) Much as you grow to love your characters and their stories, there comes a time when you wanna vomit just seeing their names. This time, I’m trying a new genre (women’s fiction) and already have 150 pages written (another NaNo project).

Not bad for a person who’s a real slacker when it comes to finishing things. Er, case in point—remember that closet project two weeks ago which resulted in mounds of laundry all over the bedroom? Well, I’ve got them whittled down to about three loads now…and, today I had to shove the mess back in the closet to hide it from the housecleaner. It’ll probably still be there when I finish the next manuscript.